Latest news with #mainlandTourists
South China Morning Post
a day ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
WeChat Pay records fourfold rise in mainland tourist taxi payments in Hong Kong
WeChat Pay Hong Kong has recorded a fourfold increase in mainland Chinese tourist payments for taxi services in the city from last year and growing usage among locals and visitors alike, according to parent company Tencent. Vice-President of Tencent Financial Technology Daniel Hong Danyi said on Thursday that the number of transactions from mainland tourists paying for taxi fares through WeChat Pay had seen a fourfold increase year on year. 'We saw that previously, many mainland tourists coming to Hong Kong realised taxis here do not support mainland payment methods. So over the past year, we spent a lot of time and effort to enable more taxi drivers to accept payments from WeChat,' he said. The platform has been offering taxi drivers perks such as zero handling fees, including for customer transactions and moving money into bank accounts. Hong added more than 20,000 taxi drivers across the city now accept both the local WeChat Pay HK accounts and the mainland version, contributing to an overall significant rise in transaction volume. The tech giant also reported growth in the adoption of its 'mini programs' by Hong Kong merchants, which doubled year on year in both usage and transaction amounts throughout the first five months of 2025. Mini programs are apps that run within the WeChat ecosystem, providing a range of functionalities, including e-commerce, travel booking, and local services, without requiring users to download a separate app or exit the platform.
South China Morning Post
20-05-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Mainland Chinese tourists miss the point of Hong Kong restaurant's infamously curt service
The influential Chinese social media platform RedNote – also known as Xiaohongshu – can easily make a business and has turned some Hong Kong restaurants into must-see attractions for visitors from mainland China. But can users of the platform also break a business? This past month, a minor online tempest brewed when mainland Chinese tourists who dined at Kau Kee, a Hong Kong beef brisket noodle joint on Gough Street in Sheung Wan, complained about the experience they had while patronising the tiny venue. The negative comments ranged from the noodles and brisket being hard and inedible to dismissive staff who ignored the frustrated guests' complaints. It seems enough users concurred with the reviews that a local news site reporting on the social media controversy called it a 'firestorm'. People queue to eat at Kau Kee on Gough Street in Sheung Wan in 2018. Photo: Shutterstock I'm not on RedNote and I don't read Chinese very well, so I can't say exactly how severe the storm of comments was. But people expressing extreme opinions online is nothing new. For every positive review, there's a contrarian trying to stand out by rage-posting negative and nasty words.
